A council sent a letter to a man telling him he was dead.
Stuart Dobson received an apology from his local authority after receiving a letter stating it was "sorry to hear" he had died and explaining how he could get a tax exemption. It was delivered to the 77-year-old widower just a month after the death of his wife of 54 years, Ann.
Mr Dobson replied to the council to let them know he was alive and that the letter had caused him "distress". He hand-delivered the letter back to the council and asked them: "Do I look dead to you?"
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He told Local Democracy Reporting Service: "It's an utter shambles, they're asking me to fill in forms when they think I'm dead, it doesn't make sense. I don't need this at all."
South Norfolk Council has since apologised for the "human error". In the letter sent to Mr Dobson, the council wrote: "I am sorry to hear that the above person has passed away.
"I have applied a class F Council Tax exemption. This is based on the assumption that the deceased was the sole owner or tenant of the above property.
"Please find overleaf the guidance notes for this exemption. If the deceased was not the sole owner or tenant of the property, the class F exemption will not be applicable.
"The current owner(s) will be responsible for any Council Tax that may become due." In his response, Mr Dobson wrote: "I have today received an ill-informed letter from you telling me that I have passed away.
"It occurs to me that only the [council] would write to a deceased person and ask them to fill in a council tax form. One doubts their sanity and rational thinking when taking such an action.
A council spokesman told the Local Democracy Service: "The council has apologised to Mr Dobson for the mistake made when updating our records following the death of Mrs Dobson, and we regret that our mistake has caused Mr Dobson upset at this difficult time.
"We have reviewed what happened and unfortunately this was a case of human error for which we are deeply sorry."
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